


A Hint Of Forever

by wordswordswords7



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Coda, Comfort, Communication, David Rose Loves Patrick Brewer, Happy Ending, Light Angst, M/M, Patrick Brewer loves David Rose, Post-Episode: s04e09 The Olive Branch, Soft Boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:47:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29888232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordswordswords7/pseuds/wordswordswords7
Summary: The night of his olive branch performance, David opens up to Patrick about accepting the gifts he'd been sent. Patrick considers David's past and their future.
Relationships: Patrick Brewer/David Rose
Comments: 14
Kudos: 186





	A Hint Of Forever

It was good to feel the weight of David in the bed next to him.

They laid there in Patrick’s room, satiated and breathing heavily. Both were silently grateful that Ray had been out for the evening by the time they’d stumbled in after David’s olive branch performance. It turned out the only true remedy for an uncertain week away from one another was the frantic connection of flesh and lips, gasping breaths and grasping hands. A fumbling promise to never be apart like that again—Tina Turner playing on loop in both their heads. 

In the exhausted and lazy aftermath, David was using Patrick’s chest as a pillow and every once in a while Patrick saw his ears go pink with a faint blush. He wanted to ask what David was thinking about but he thought he knew. He was about 99.9% certain he was the only person alive who’d been given the gift of the purposeful lowering of David’s walls. The only person alive who’d been allowed to see David so uninhibited and _silly,_ and so full love _(calm down Patrick)_ or something like it. And if he knew David at all by now, he knew that the other man’s mind was probably spinning with _what ifs_ and uncertainties as they laid there catching their breath.

Just as he was thinking about how close he’d come to losing all of this, Patrick was struck by a latent wave of guilt. He considered how the day had played out, how he’d felt pretty embarrassed earlier at the idea of David waiting around for presents while Patrick floundered in panic and shame. How he’d tried to add a sliver of levity to his tone as he’d left for lunch, elated at the thought of getting back together but a little put out by the prospect of David letting him stew in that. But halfway through his BLT sandwich, Patrick had realized that it didn’t matter one way or the other if that had been the case—if the other man had been ready to get back together days ago but hadn’t. Because Patrick thought he understood it. Things David had said today and in the past were painting a picture that put things into a pretty lonely perspective. 

_This is the first gift I haven’t bought myself in a very long time._

...and...

_I’ve never been in this situation before, where someone’s been so nice...to me._

God, Patrick could only imagine what that said about David’s past relationships. It certainly recalled him back to the motel room a week ago, with David barely holding himself together and laying it all out so Patrick had no other option but to look at the seemingly unscalable mountain of pain that had erupted between them.

_You stood in front of me and told me to trust people. When I was perfectly fine not trusting people! Not trusting people is what I’m used to!_

That mountain had seemed so impassable all week long. And then suddenly David had been standing beside him _wanting_ him and _them_ , and Patrick wasn’t going to let him go again. After lunch, he’d been more teasing about it as they went about their day, never actually serious about needing or wanting an olive branch of his own. Eventually he’d tried to infuse the suggestion that David buy him dinner with enough humour for him to know Patrick was only kidding. Patrick wanted to make sure David knew that no matter how long he had needed, no matter how many gifts he’d accepted, he wasn’t going to be left standing in the ruins of another relationship gone sour. 

The fact that David had opened up some soft and silly part of himself anyway, and given Patrick the performance of a lifetime, only cemented that truth. God, he loved this man. He _loved_ him so damn much. And well, that was a big and sort of scary feeling but it was true.

“So…”

In the dark, David’s voice was thick with exhaustion but strangely timid—quiet in the kind of way that voices could only be late at night under the stillness of an otherwise empty house. 

“What is it?”

“M’kay, I just,” he hesitated, and Patrick was tempted to tilt his face up so they were looking each other in the eye but he didn’t. “I just need you to know, um, that it wasn’t like that.”

Patrick slowly lifted his hand to card his fingers through David’s hair. “I’m not sure I’m following, David.”

“Okay, it’s just that I wasn’t– I mean, I didn’t…”

David huffed out a frustrated sigh and rolled over onto his back, squinting up at the ceiling. Patrick turned onto his side, head resting on the crook of his elbow, and reached out to place a steady hand on David’s stomach. He gently ran his thumb back and forth along the trail of hair leading away from his navel, in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. 

“What I’m trying to say is that I wasn’t _not_ talking to you so that you’d buy me things.”

“Okay?”

“At first you were sending gifts and I didn’t really know why. And I thought you’d stop, you know? After I didn’t return any of your texts.”

“Did you want me to stop?” Patrick asked, a little knot of worry forming in his gut. 

They were good now, he thought. Right now in this moment. But how close had they come to not being good ever again?

When David replied, his voice was a small and fearful whisper. “Sort of?”

Patrick couldn’t help but inhale sharply and suddenly David was rolling over onto his stomach and burying his face into Patrick’s pillow. Their bodies were closer together now, and Patrick leaned in to wrap a leg around David’s and to kiss his bare arm. His hand rubbed small circles against his broad freckled shoulders.

“I thought you would eventually,” he continued, words slightly muffled by the pillow. “I thought you’d figure it out and cut your losses.”

“Figure what out?”

“That maybe I wasn’t worth the effort.” Before Patrick could argue that point, David barrelled on. “And I was afraid that you leaving one serious relationship like you did meant you would eventually do the same thing with us, but I realized that I still wanted to be _us_ anyway for as long as I could. Only, I thought maybe it would be less selfish of me to give you an out so that you didn’t stay out of guilt or some weird obligation to the store. So I waited a few more days to see if you’d take it but you didn't.”

Patrick tried to track that, to connect the dots as David was laying them out in the space between them and it hurt. It fucking hurt. It hadn’t been the omission of Rachel’s existence then, as he’d assumed, that had ripped through their lives over the past week. But the idea that _Patrick_ had let his relationship with her progress to the point of an engagement before ending things so abruptly. And that David was worried if he stayed now it wouldn’t be for long and it wouldn’t be without regrets. That he _hoped_ for a future together but didn’t dare to expect one.

“It wasn’t the gifts. I _liked_ them, sure, but it wasn’t only the gifts. I just wanted– I just _want_ you.”

Patrick could hear the silent _for as long as you’ll have me_ in David’s words and suddenly he was angry. Angry at the lack of self worth behind the quiet confession. Angry that David would settle for something he thought was guaranteed to end in pain. Angry at himself for putting that thought in his head in the first place. Patrick had to let out a few steady breaths before he spoke, letting that fire burn down into a smouldering ash.

“You deserve better than to settle for that kind of relationship,” Patrick said, and felt David stiffen under his hand at his tone. “No, no– sorry, I mean that isn’t what _this_ relationship is. It’s not what _we_ are. Being with you has nothing to do with being worth the effort because being with you is effortless. Aside from the obvious reason for leaving Rachel, it was always so hard with her. And I know I should never have let it get as far as it did, but what you and I have doesn’t compare. I’m in this, David. Please believe me when I say I can’t possibly be _more_ in it. I won’t ever need an out because I’m not going anywhere.”

Patrick was walking a fine line here. Hinting at forever without promising it outright for fear of scaring David off. But it was the truth, or the gently unfurling seedling of truth at least. After this past week, he never wanted to wake up without David again. He wanted, no _needed,_ a lifetime of mornings and days and nights together. No doubts and no regrets.

After a beat, David slowly turned his head and blinked owlishly—his eyes shining under the faded lights from the street through Patrick’s window. Their hands found one another under the sheet and the look he gave Patrick was hard yet vulnerable.

“You hurt me.”

“I wish I hadn’t.”

There was a flash of hesitation in his eyes.

“I’m afraid that one day I’ll hurt you.”

That pulled Patrick up short.

“You might," he conceded because it was possible.

“What then?”

What would Patrick do then if David hurt him like he'd hurt David? He hoped he’d remember this week and this moment and know that loving someone meant loving the good and the bad. And that forgiveness could move mountains if the mountains were worth moving. That they’d always be worth moving with the man laying across from him.

“Then we’ll figure it out. Here, together. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

David replied by curling in closer so that there wasn’t an inch of space left between them and surging forward to breathlessly capture Patrick’s lips with his own. Patrick responded in kind, feeling the desperate heat of it in his belly. He could taste David's own unspoken promise of forever (or something like it) in that kiss. They eventually pulled apart at the telltale sound of tires crunching onto the driveway and a car door being shut. The front door opened and closed and they could hear Ray’s chipper humming preceding him up the stairs.

“Patrick! Are you home? I picked up Rocky Road ice cream and Speed 3!”

The hint of a playful smile tugged at David’s lips, creating a shallow dimple that Patrick couldn’t help but lean in to kiss. 

“I mean, hopefully not _here,_ " he said with an eye roll. 

Patrick huffed out a groaning laugh. “Yeah, definitely not here.”

**Author's Note:**

> I told myself I was NOT going to write angst! I was going to sit down and write something soft and happy and full of fluff. And goddammit...this is not that. BUT it is lighter than my usual brand of angst so let's just all call that progress and hope for more self control next time.


End file.
